Faces of tomorrow have vital role in city’s future

THIS Friday is going to be a big day for Birmingham. In the youngest city in Europe, some of the finest young professionals will be gathering and celebrating the achievements of their peers at the Future Faces Annual dinner and awards.

Inaugurated in 2014, this is the fifth year the Future Faces Chambers of Commerce is holding its flagship annual dinner.

A testament to the sheer force of the young professionals in the city, the dinner is proudly being hosted at the International Convention Centre.

The glitzy evening culminates in the announcement of the Future Face of the Year. I know that the competition for the accolade has been particularly lively this year and I greatly look forward to the announcement of this year’s “Future Face”.

But the very existence of Future Faces underlines the vitally important role that our young business community plays not only in the present but for the future of our city.

They will, of course, rightly have robust celebrations at the ICC but underpinning that there is a group of responsible people who have an awareness of their important role in the youngest city in Europe.

This is not one-off. Future Faces has seen a meteoric rise in their membership numbers of large organisations across the region recognise the importance of helping our young professionals nurture a professional network early on in their career. Indeed, our most recent launch has been in Lichfield, showing clear evidence that this is not just a “city-phenomenon”.

If we are to have long-term sustainable success then we have to nurture the talent that we have. We have to provide them with the tools to build strong networks, collaborate and exchange ideas.

Quite frankly, we have all been the future once. As each generation progresses, new ideas come forward with new initiatives to improve the world around us.

Take Mark Hipwell, current president of Future Faces president, as an example. His work for the Laing O’Rourke/Murphy joint venture on the HS2 project means that he is at the very heart of the future of not only Birmingham and the West Midlands but the UK as a whole.

However, I know that Mark has already engaged with many organisations that are making Birmingham a better place.

He has aligned himself with several organisations that are encouraging and nurturing creative talent in the city.

And he has shown great social awareness by highlighting the problems of homelessness and the challenges around diversity and inclusivity.

While we have people of Mark’s calibre we can be certain that the future of our city is assured.

If we are to have long-term sustainable success then we have to nurture the talent that we have